1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a liquid crystal device and a method of driving the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, a liquid crystal display is popularly used, as the most promising compact flat panel display, for the display of a calculator or a watch, a display for an automobile, a display for a personal computer, or a moving picture display such as a compact liquid crystal television. In recent years, a liquid crystal device has been applied to not only display devices but also a shutter array, a light bulb, a switching device for optical information processing, and an optical memory. Therefore, the application range of the liquid crystal device has been widened. As described above, in order to generally use a liquid crystal device in the above application fields, a higher voltage response must be achieved.
In order to increase the voltage response of a liquid crystal, the following methods are generally used:
1) The viscosity of a liquid crystal is decreased by adding an agent to the liquid crystal, thereby increasing the movement of liquid crystal molecules. PA1 2) A pre-tilt angle is increased by changing the structure of a liquid crystal orienting film. PA1 3) A liquid crystal other than a nematic liquid crystal, e.g., a ferroelectric liquid crystal having a high sensitivity to an electric field is used. PA1 4) The Waveform of a driving voltage to be applied is controlled.
At present, however, a response of a liquid crystal with respect to the applied voltage is hard to reach a response required in the above application fields. In addition, since a ferroelectric liquid crystal is not easily synthesized, only a few ferroelectric liquid crystal devices manufactured as samples are reported.